Hi again! Finally, finally, FINALLY got another Reiko Shimizu story done. Here's the link to the torrent file:

The Rest of the Dream

I'm really glad I've finally gotten this one finished, because it's the first Reiko Shimizu story I ever read, and still my favorite. I was on exchange when I found it, and after I finished reading the book I started hunting around used manga stores for EVERY SINGLE THING she'd ever written. (Needless to say, packing to come home was "fun". ^_^b) There's just something about the atmosphere in this one; I can't say much without spoiling the story, and there's no way I'm going to do that, but... Shimizu-sensei says in one of her sidebar talks that she took everything she liked and crammed it together, and that's how she came up with this story. When I try to do that sort of thing, it never works, but she managed it amazingly well.  (For those of you who read stories through more than once, on your second time through it's especially fun to watch Takami at various points in the story, once you know what his deal is. *grin*) Hope you like it!

I'm back! Just a quick note + file this time; here's the second chapter in the Nakamura Yoshiki MVP series.

TO GIRLS: One Step At A Time

....aaaaaaaaaaaand I've gotta go work. *sigh* Enjoy the chapter!

Awesomeness! XD For those of you who don't do Bittorrent, Eiennihen is being absolutely fantastic and hosting direct links to the Reiko Shimizu stories on her blog, right here: http://desertbus.blogspot.com/

Also, somebody was nice enough to post information on them on Manga Updates. The info's a little misleading, though (my bad; I wasn't very clear when I posted them here in the first place), and I thought I'd better clear things up so nobody's confused.

1.) "One More Myth" isn't a series, really; it's one of several Reiko Shimizu short story collections, and "One More Myth" is only the title of the first story in the volume. (...Which I haven't done. ^_^b) Other collections are "Noah's Spaceship", "The Evolution Theory of Angels", "Milky Way" and "The Rest of the Dream".

2.) I've only been doing the stories that I REALLY like (basically because I couldn't get them out of my head, and when I find stories like that, I tend to want to make everybody and their cousin read them... but I'm not masochist enough to translate everything I read. *grin*), so I haven't completely translated "One More Myth", and I may not. (Meaning that the "Chapters 1-4" thing isn't quite right. Sorry. m-_-m)

3.) So, where ARE the stories from, then? "A Million-Pound Love" and "A Fairytale Judas" are from "One More Myth", and "Noah's Spaceship" and "Metal And the Bride" are from (natch) "Noah's Spaceship".

4.) They're all stand-alone stories, and you don't HAVE to read them in order, but characters from one story do tend to pop up in some of the others. The oldest story of the four is "A Million-Pound Love", followed by "Noah's Spaceship", "A Fairytale Judas" and "Metal and the Bride".  (They were originally published in entirely different magazines, and there's some slight overlap between "Noah" and "Judas".)

Hopefully I didn't just make things MORE confusing; I seem to be good at that. Xp To whoever did post the info on Manga Updates, THANK YOU!! I don't care if it's a little off; I'm just glad people can find the stories if they want to. (And if they care about the info, they can come read this.) ^_^/~

Bittorrents, of course!

Stray Dog - Hiromu Arakawa ("FullMetal Alchemist")'s debut story. 'Nuff said, really. ^_^~

Reiko Shimizu short story collection (1) - Four short stories from the "Reiko Shimizu Masterworks" series. (Reiko Shimizu wrote "Moon Child" and "Kaguya-Hime".  Before I found her books, I'd never have believed "Art Deco" and "trippy" could go so well together... XD) I liked 'em a lot, and thought someone else might too. :-) More to come, eventually...
Knife - Anybody read "Immortal Rain"? ("Meteor Methuselah" in Japanese; I think that's the one time I've EVER approved of a title change... ^_^b) This is a collection of really early stories by its mangaka, Kaori Ozaki. (She was sixteen when she drew the first one, and eighteen when the last one ran.) ...Which'll make this next bit sound pretty silly (unless you ARE sixteen, in which case it's no surprise), but it's weirdly "adulty". Some of the stories get MILDLY R-RATED, so if you're not a fan of NUDITY (partial and rather art-house in this case, but still nudity), I'd SKIP THIS one. If that bit doesn't bother you all that much, the stories themselves are pretty cool. What's even cooler is watching how quickly her skill level goes up. @_@

Marrieds - An odd little Rumiko Takahashi story about the joys of domestic violence. *blink-blink* (Must've been written right before "Maison Ikkoku"; find the similarities...)

Way Better Than Meeting in Dreams - This is the beginning of Yoshiki Nakamura's first-ever series. If you're only mildly into manga (aka., you find it at the bookstore), you probably know her from "Skip Beat!", and if you download a lot of manga, you've probably run into "Tokyo Crazy Paradise". Her first real series is "Won't Give Up My MVP!", which is seven volumes long; apparently it took them a while to decide it was going to be a series, because she wrote two separate volumes about the same characters before the series started ("Way Better Than Meeting in Dreams" and "Saint Love"). Since they're part of the same series, but only unofficially, I'm labeling them Volumes -2 and -1. Eventually, I want to get the whole thing scanslated, but... it's REALLY hard to edit, so it's gonna take a while. (Unless it miraculously develops a huge fan-following and people start screaming at me to put it out faster. ...Which I predict will happen sometime around February 30th next year. @_@) It's too much fun NOT to do, though. Anyway, this is chapter 1 of "Way Better Than Meeting in Dreams". (P.S. - That "Dunkin' Love" tagline? Absolutely NOT my fault. It was that way in the original, in English, and it was just too corny not to keep. XD)

  And that's probably enough (too much?) for today. Geez... I feel like I'm showing strangers around my closet. >_@ Some of the scans aren't that great (especially the first couple Reiko Shimizu stories); they were some of the first ones I did, and it REALLY shows. Try not to let it wreck the story for you, please. Take care, and I hope you find something you like. ^_^

Mm... "Fear itself"? ^_^b

Because it's not human for everyone to get along with everyone else, and it would be weird to expect everyone to get along with me, as though I were some exception to the rule. (Also, it's not like I get along with everyone myself, so it's only fair. ^_^)